What other newspapers are saying

At first, the idea of horse slaughter seems distasteful. When considering the bigger picture, however, it becomes apparent the practice is a needed option.

Northwest Missouri is in the midst of this ongoing controversy. Rains Natural Meats of Gallatin, Mo., is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in preparation to receive regulatory approval to slaughter horses.

Powered by emotion, Congress banned slaughter in 2007. However, the results proved disastrous for horses and horse lovers. Few humane options remained for animals that became old or sick.

Local owners had to try to find a buyer who would transport the animals to Mexico or Canada. The next-best alternative was to kill them at home, creating an environmental problem of disposing large carcasses. Authorities reported an increase in abandoned and neglected horses.

Congress reversed course in 2011, voting to permit slaughter as a humane end-of-life option. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., provided a key vote for the move, noting a need in Missouri.

The USDA finally approved the opening of a slaughter plant in New Mexico this summer, followed by another plant opening in Iowa. Daviess County may seem like an unlikely place for horse slaughter, until you consider it is home to Missouri's largest Amish settlement, where horses are common in everyday life.

The Rains family has dealt in specialty meats in the past, including antibiotic-free and hormone-free pork and beef. The plant is a small, family operation so only a limited number of horses would pass through. Most of the meat is expected to be exported and some may be directed to alternative markets, such as zoos.

Thorough inspection and adherence to regulations related to product safety and slaughter practices are essential for this project. The opening of the two other plants means there is no immediate rush to approve the Gallatin facility.

We urge the Rains family to be upfront about the process and keep the public informed. Once that happens, we believe the region will be receptive to a facility that will add economic activity in a rural community while providing a humane option for horse owners.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 12

Embarrassing fact: If the Missouri Legislature overrides Gov. Jay Nixon's veto last week of House Bill 436, then the next time the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local police departments arrest 159 people and seize 267 guns, the agents and cops could be charged as felons for any gun-crime arrests made in St. Louis.

Surely not, you say. The legislature couldn't be that stupid. Wrong.

Had Nixon not vetoed it, House Bill 436 - grandly titled "The Second Amendment Preservation Act" - would have become law Aug. 28. Among the many stupid things it would have done was to make it a felony for any federal or state law enforcement officer who tried to enforce federal gun laws.

As U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan pointed out, had it been law, the members of the federal-local task force that cracked down on some of the area's most hard-core criminals could have been charged with crimes.

The legislature will have a chance to override Nixon's veto in September. Perhaps some of the bill's supporters will have wised up by then. But with this bunch, you never know. ?

It would have nullified every federal gun law ever passed - and those that might be passed in the future. Want a machine gun in Missouri? Legal. Bazooka? Legal. Tank? No problem. Laser death beam if it's ever invented? Legal. Even the National Rifle Association, before it went off the deep end, once supported most of the laws that this joke of a bill would have nullified.

It would have made it illegal to print the name or picture of any gun owner in the newspaper. Want your gun convention covered? Too bad. Want your local weekly to print a picture of your kid and the first deer he shot? Not gonna happen.

The folks in St. Peters represented by the bill's sponsor, Republican Doug Funderburk, must be very proud. House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, is an attorney. Unless he slept through the law school classes that covered the numerous nullification cases outlined by Mr. Nixon in his veto message, he had to know this law would never be implemented. It wasn't passed to protect Second Amendment rights, but to allow Mr. Jones and others to go on right-wing radio and pretend they were protecting Second Amendment rights.

The result of such cynicism is to diminish every serious discussion of the Second Amendment going on in Missouri or around the nation.

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What other newspapers are saying

At first, the idea of horse slaughter seems distasteful. When considering the bigger picture, however, it becomes apparent the practice is a needed option.